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William Barry bird drawing from his Album of Shorebirds William Edward Barry (1846-1932) was truly a renaissance man, talented and renowned as an architect, historian, naturalist and pioneer preservationist. It was he who bequeathed to his niece, Edith Cleaves Barry, the 1825 brick store built by his grandfather William Lord. Today that building houses the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, Maine. Barry had been employed as an architect at such firms as Peabody and Stearns and Cabot and Chandler, but he returned to live in Kennebunk in 1883. His drawings, manuscripts and observations were nothing short of prolific, and several were formally published during his lifetime. His full body of work-- natural history observations, travel logs, botanical drawings, architectural renderings, maritime research, building models, journals, and sketch books--primarily spans the years 1870 to 1930 and is an invaluable resource on many fronts. The Brick Store Museum has literally hundreds of Barry's drawings and sketches in its permanent collection. Above is an example of Barry's work documenting the shorebirds of the region. These detailed, highly realistic drawings--often rendered in watercolor, pen & ink, and/or colored pencil--frequently accompany copious field notes. Barry is buried in Kennebunk's Hope Cemetery. # # # |
